Saint Polyeuktos was the first martyr in the Armenian city of
Meletina. He was a soldier under the emperor Decius (249-251) and he later suffered for
Christ under the emperor Valerian (253-259). The saint was friend also of Nearchos, a
fellow-soldier and firm Christian, but Polyeutos himself, while yet leading a virtuous
life, remained a pagan.

When the persecution against Christians started up, Nearchos said to
Polyeuktos: "Friend, we shalt soon be separated from thee, for they wilt take me to
torture, and thou alas, wilt renounce friendship with me". Polyeuktos answered him, that
in a dream he had seen Christ, Who took from him his garb and clothed him in another and
bright attire. "From that moment, -- said he, -- I am prepared to serve the Lord Jesus
Christ".

Having become ardent in spirit, Saint Polyeuktos went out onto the city
square, tore up the imperial edict hanging there about the duty to worship idols, and then
he smashed idols from out of the hands of pagan priests carrying them.

His father-in-law, the governor Felox, to whom had been entrusted the
carrying out of the imperial edict, was horrified at the deed of Saint Polyeuktos and
declared, that for this he had to die. "Go, make farewell with thine wife and children," --
said Felox. The wife came and with tears began to beseech her husband to renounce Christ,
and his father?in-law Felox also wept. But Saint Polyeuktos remained steadfast in his
resolve to suffer for Christ. With joy he bent his head beneathe the sword of the
executioner and was baptised in his own blood (+ 259). Soon, when the Church of Christ in
the time of Equal?to-the-Apostles Constantine had triumphed throughout all the Roman
empire, at Meletina there was erected a church in the name of the holy Martyr Polyeuktos.
Many a miracle was worked through the prayerful intercession of Saint Polyeuktos. In
this very church prayed fervently for the granting of a son the parents of the holy Monk
Euthymios the Great (Comm. 20 January). The birth of this great luminary of Orthodoxy in
the year 376 thus occurred through the help of the holy Martyr Polyeuktos. His memory was
also venerated by Sainted Akakios, Bishop of Meletina, a participant of the Third
OEcumenical Council and a great proponent of the Ecumenical Truth. As in the East, so also
in the West, the holy Martyr Polyeuktosis venerated as a patron saint of vows and treaty
agreements.

Sainted Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, in the world Feodor
(Theodore), was descended from the illustrious boyar-noble lineage of the Kolychevi,
occupying a prominent place in the Boyar duma at the court of the Moscow sovereigns. He
was born in the year 1507. His father, Stepan Ivanovich, "a man enlightened and filled
with military spirit", attentively prepared his son for government service. Pious Varvara
(Barbara), the mother of Feodor, who ended her days in monasticism with the name
Varsonophia, implanted in the soul of her son a sincere faith and deep piety. Young Feodor
Kolychev applied himself diligently to the Holy Scripture and to the books of the holy
fathers, upon which the old Russian enlightenment rested, then transpiring within the
Church and in the spirit of the Church. The Moscow Greatprince, Vasilii III Ioannovich,
the father of Ivan the Terrible, brought young Feodor into the court, but he was not
however attracted to court life. Conscious of its vanity and sinfulness, Feodor all the
more deeply immersed himself in the reading of books and visiting the churches of God.
Life in Moscow repelled the young ascetic. The sincere devotion to him of the young prince
Ivan, presaging a great future for him in government service, could not hold in check
within the earthly city his searching out of the Heavenly City.

On Sunday, 5 June 1537, in church for Divine Liturgy, Feodor felt
intensely in his soul the words of the Saviour: "No one is able to serve two masters"
(Mt. 6: 24), which determined his ultimate destiny. Praying fervently to the Moscow
wonderworkers, and without bidding farewell to kinsfolk, he secretly in the attire of
a common person left Moscow, and for a certain while he hid himself away from the world
in the village of Khizna, near Lake Onega, earning his livelihood as a shepherd. His
thirst for ascetic deeds led him to the reknown Solovetsk monastery on the White Sea.
There he fulfilled quite toilsome obediences: he chopped firewood, dug the ground, and
worked in the mill. After a year and an half of testing, the hegumen Aleksei, at the wish
of Feodor tonsured him, giving him the monastic name Philip and entrusting him in obedience
to the starets-elder Jona Shamina, who conversed with the Monk Alexander Svirsk (+ 1533,
Comm. 30 August). Under the guidance of the experienced elders the Monk Philip grew
spiritually, and strengthened in fasting and prayer. Hegumen Aleksei sent him in obedience
to work at the monastery black-smith forge, where Saint Philip combined the activity of
unceasing prayer amidst his working with an heavy hammer. At the beginning of the service
in church he always appeared first and was the last to leave. He toiled also in the bakery,
where the humble ascetic was comforted with an heavenly Sign. In the monastery afterwards
they displayed the "Bakery" image of the Mother of God, through which the heavenly
Mediatrix bestowed Her blessing upon the humble baker-monk Philip. With the blessing of
the hegumen, Saint Philip spent a certain while in wilderness solitude, attending to
himself and to God.

In 1546 at Novgorod the Great, archbishop Theodosii consecrated Philip
as hegumen of the Solovetsk monastery. The new-made hegumen strove with all his might to
exalt the spiritual significance of the monastery and its founders -- the Monk Savvatii
and Zosima of Solovetsk (Comm. 27 September, 17 April). He searched out the Hodegetria
image of the Mother of God brought to the island by the original first head of Solovetsk,
the Monk Savvatii; he located the stone cross which once stood before the cell of the monk.
Found also was the Psalter, belonging to the Monk Zosima (+ 1478), the first hegumen of
Solovetsk, and his robe, in which from that time hegumens would vest during service on the
days of memory of the wonderworker. The monastery was revived spiritually. For regulating
life at the monastery, a new ustav (monastic rule) was adopted. Saint Philip built on
Solovetsk majestic temples -- a refectory church of the Uspenie (Dormition) of the Mother
of God, consecrated in the year 1557, and a church of the Transfiguration (Preobrazhenie)
of the Lord. The hegumen himself worked as a simple labourer, helping to lay the walls of
the Transfiguration church. Beneathe the north portico he dug himself a grave, alongside
that of his guide, the starets Jona. Spiritual life in these years blossomed at the
monastery: asceticising amidst the brethren amongst the students of Hegumen Philip were
the Monks John and Longin of Yarengsk (Comm. 3 July) and Vassian and Jona of Pertominsk
(Comm. 12 July).

For his efforts of secret prayer Saint Philip often withdrew for quiet
to a desolate wilderness spot, two versts from the monastery, which received afterwards
the name the Philippov wilderness.

But the Lord was preparing the saint for other service and other work.
At Moscow Ivan the Terrible remembered fondly about the Solovetsk hermit from the time of
his childhood years. The tsar hoped to find in Saint Philip a true companion, confessor
and counsellor, who through his exalted monastic life would have nothing in common with
the sedition of the boyar-nobles. The holiness of the metropolitan, in the opinion of Ivan
the Terrible, ought to be of a certain spiritual meekness to quell the treachery and
malice, nesting itself within the Boyar soul. The choice of such an arch-hierarch for the
Russian Church seemed to him the best possible.

The saint for a long time refused to take upon himself the great burden
of primate of the Russian Church. He did not sense any spiritual affinity with Ivan. He
attempted to urge the tsar to abolish the Oprichniki [the tsar internal terror shock
troops]. Ivan the Terrible attempted to argue its civil necessity. Finally, the dread
tsar and the holy metropolitan came to an agreement, that Saint Philip would not meddle
in the affairs of the Oprichniki and the running of the government, he would not resign as
metropolitan in case, if the tsar be not able to fulfill his wishes, and that he would be
a support and counsellor of the tsar, just as former metropolitans were supports for the
Moscow sovereigns. On 25 July 1566 occurred the consecration of Saint Philip to the
cathedra?seat of the Moscow sainted-hierarchs, whose number he was soon to join.

Ivan the Terrible, one of the greatest and most contradictory figures in
Russian history, lived an intensely busy life, he was a talented writer and bibliophile
[i.e. lover of books], he involved himself in the compilation of the Chronicles (and
himself suddenly sundered the thread of the Moscow chronicle-writing), he delved into the
intricacies of the monastic ustav (rule), and more than once thought about monasticism and
abdicating the throne. Every aspect of governmental service, all the abrupt measures
undertaken by him for a setting to root restructuring of civil and social life, Ivan the
Terrible tried to rationalise as a manifestation of Divine Providence, as the acting of
God within history. His beloved spiritual heroes were Saint Michael of Chernigov (Comm.
20 September) and Saint Theodore (Feodor) the Black (Comm. 19 September), military men
active with a complex contradictory destiny, moving on towards their sacred ends through
whatever the hindrances rising up afront them, and fulfilling their duties to the Rodina
(Native-land) and Holy Church. The more the darkness thickened around Ivan the Terrible,
the more resolutely he demanded of his soul cleansing and redemption. Journeying on
pilgrimage to the Kirillo-Belozersk monastery, he declared his wish to the hegumen and the
gathered elders to be made a monk. The haughty autocrat fell on his knees to the hegumen,
and that one blessed his intent. All his life from that time, wrote Ivan the Terrible, "it
seems to me, an accursed sinner, that halfways I am already black-robed". The Oprichnina
was itself conceived of by Ivan the Terrible in the form of a monastic brotherhood: serving
God with weapon and military deeds, the Oprichniki were required to dress in monastic garb
and go to church service, long and tiring, lasting from 4 to 10 o'clock in the morning.
Upon "brethren", not appearing at 4 o'clock in the morning, the tsar imposed a penance.
Ivan himself with his sons sought fervently to pray and sing in the church choir. From
church they went on to refectory (meal), and while the Oprichniki ate, the tsar stood
alongside them. The remaining food the Oprichniki gathered from the table and distributed
to the poor at the doorway of their refectory (dining hall). Ivan the Terrible, with tears
of repentance and wanting to be an esteemer of the holy ascetics -- the teachers of
repentance, he wanted to wash and burn away his own sins and those of his companions,
cherishing the assurance, that even the terrible cruel actions would rebound for him to
the welfare of Russia and the triumph of Orthodoxy. The most clearly spiritual action and
monastic sobriety of Ivan the Terrible is revealed in his "Synodikon": shortly before his
death by his orders there were compiled full lists of the people murdered by him and his
Oprichniki, which were then distributed throughout all the Russian monasteries. All his
sins against the nation Ivan took upon himself and besought the holy monks to pray to God
for the forgiveness of his tormented soul.

The self-styled monasticism of Ivan the Terrible, a dark most grievous
oppression over Russia, tormented Saint Philip, who considered it impossible to mix
together the earthly and the heavenly, serving the cross and serving the sword. Even
moreso was it, that Saint Philip saw, how much unrepentant malice and envy was concealed
beneathe the black hoods of the Oprichniki. There were among them outright murderers,
hardened in lawless bloodletting, and profiteers in it for the rewards, rooted in sin and
transgression. By the sufferance of God history often is worked with the hands of the
impious, and Ivan the Terrible as it were wanted to whiten before God his black
brotherhood, -- the blood, spilled in the name of its thugs and fanatics, cried out to
heaven.

Saint Philip decided to oppose Ivan the Terrible. This was connected
with a new wave of executions in the years 1567-1568. In the Autumn of 1567, just as the
tsar was setting out on a campaign against Livonia, he learned about a boyar conspiracy.
The plotters intended to seize the tsar and deliver him over to the Polish king, who
already was on the move with an army towards Russian territory. Ivan the Terrible dealt
severely with the conspirators and again he shed much blood. It was bitter for Saint
Philip, and the conscience of the saint at length compelled him boldly to enter into
defense of the executed. The final rift occurred in the Spring of 1568. On the Sunday of
the Veneration of the Cross, 2 March 1568, when the tsar with his Oprichniki entered the
Uspenie (Dormition) cathedral, as was their custom in monastic garb, Saint Philip refused
to bless him, and began openly to denounce the lawless acts committed by the Oprichniki:
"Metropolitan Philip did instruct the sovereign of the enmity in Moscow concerning the
Oprichnina".The accusations of the Vladyka shattered the harmony of the church service.
Ivan the Terrible in a rage said: "Thou wouldst oppose us? We shall see thine firmness!
I have been too soft on you", -- retorted the tsar, according to eye-witnesses.

The tsar began to show ever greater cruelty in persecuting all those
that opposed him. Executions followed one after the other. The fate of the saintly
confessor was sealed. But Ivan the Terrible wanted to observe a canonical semblance
of propriety. The Boyar duma obediently carried out the decision to have a trial over
the Primate of the Russian Church. A cathedral trial-court was set up over Metropolitan
Philip in the presence of a thinned-out Boyar duma. False witnesses were found: and to
the deep sorrow of the saint, these were monks of the Solovetsk monastery beloved by him,
his former students and novices. They accused Saint Philip of a multitude of
transgressions, even including sorcery. "I am come upon the earth, just like all my
ancestors, -- humbly answered the saint, -- prepared to suffer for truth". Having refuted
all the accusations, the holy sufferer attempted to halt the trial by declaring
voluntarily to resign the metropolitan dignity. But his abdication was not accepted. New
abuse awaited the martyr. Even after bringing forth a sentence of life imprisonment, they
compelled Saint Philip to serve Liturgy in the Uspensk cathedral. This was on 8 November
1568. In the midst of the service the Oprichniki burst into the temple, they publicly read
the council sentence of condemnation, and then abused the saint, tearing from him the
hierarchical vestments, they dressed him in rags, dragged him out of the church and drove
him off on a simple peasant's sledge to the Theophany monastery. For a long while they
oppressed the martyr in the cellars of the Moscow monasteries, the feet of the elder they
shoved into stocks, they held him in chains, and put an heavy chain upon his neck.
Finally, they drove him off to the Tver Otroch monastery. And there a year afterwards,
on 23 December 1569, the saint accepted a martyr's death at the hands of Maliuta Skuratov.
Only three days before this the holy elder foresaw the finish of his earthly efforts and
communed the Holy Mysteries. His relics were committed to earth initially there at the
monastery, beyond the church altar. Later on they were transferred to the Solovetsk
monastery (11 August 1591) and from there -- to Moscow (3 July 1652).

The memory of Sainted Philip was celebrated by the Russian Church from
the year 1591, on the day of his martyr's end -- 23 December. From 1660 the celebration
was transferred to 9 January.

The Prophet Samei (Shemaiah) lived under king Solomon and his
son Rehoboam, whom the prophet before the face of God forbade to war against the 10
Tribes of Israel, which separated themselves from the offspring of David (3 [1]
Kings 12).

Sainted Peter, Bishop of Sebasteia, was a brother of Sainted
Basil the Great and Sainted Gregory of Nyssa (Comm. 1 January and 10 January). And in his
upbringing a large part was played by his older sister, Saint Macrina (Comm. 19 July).
Sainted Basil the great consecrated Saint Peter as presbyter, and after the death
of Saint Basil he was made bishop of Sebasteia (in Armenia). Saint Peter was present at
the Second OEcumenical Council in the year 381, convened at Constantinople against the
heresy of Macedonias.

The Monk Eustratios hailed from the city of Tarsis. At 20 years
of age he secretly left the home of his parents and settled in the Abgarite monastery (on
Olympos in Asia Minor). There he lived a strict ascetic life, eating only bread and
water, and spending the nights at prayer. After a certain while he was chosen head of the
monastery. During the reign of the Iconoclast Leo the Armenian (813-820), the Monk
Eustratios in hiding from pursuit roamed the hills and the wilds, and after the death of
the emperor he returned to the monastery. Prayer never left his lips, and he incessantly
repeated the words: "Lord, have mercy!"

Before his death he gave an instruction to the monks: not to be
attracted towards earthly blessings, and constantly to think about the future life.
Signing himself with the sign of the Cross, he pronounced the words: "Into Thine hands,
O Lord, I commend my spirit" and he died peacefully, at age 95.